Week Two - Ideas, craft & context
Notes from this week
Lecture: brief analysis
Research
Cervical screening and cervical cancer
Cervical screening, also known as a smear test, is a test to check the health of the cervix and help prevent cervical cancer. It is offered to all women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64. You’ll get an invite every 3 to 5 years depending on your age and where you live. You also need to be registered with a GP to receive your invitations.
What happens at the appointment? The screening test is usually done by a female nurse or doctor, before starting they should explain what is going to happen during the test and answer any questions. The nurse will ask you to remove your clothes was it down (behind a screen,) you will then be given a sheet to put over yourself. You will then lie back on the bed usually with your knees bent, feet together and knees apart, the speculum will gently be put into the vagina (a small amount of lubricant may be used.) Using a soft brush, a small sample of cells will be taken from the cervix and put into a pot of liquid to be sent off to the laboratory. The nurse will then remove the speculum and leave you to get dressed.
How can you make your screening more comfortable? Talk to your nurse - they’re trained and experienced in making your appointment comfortable. Take a friend or family member with you, that might help ease your nerves. Wear a loose skirt or dress - it can make you feel more covered. Ask your nurse about breathing exercises to help you relax, or try listening to something you enjoy like music or a podcast. Ask the nurse to use a smaller speculum. Ask the nurse about lying in a different position - such as on your side with your knees pulled up to your chest.
When will you be invited for a cervical screening? The NHS cervical screening programme invites women aged 25 to 64 for their smear test. You’ll get an invite every 3 to 5 years depending on your age and where you live, you must also be registered with a GP to receive your invitation letter. Under 25s will receive their screening letter up to 6 months before they turn 25. Women aged between 25 and 49 will receive screening letters every 3 years. Women aged between 50 and 64 will receive their screening letters every 5 years. Women aged 65 and over will only receive a letter if a recent test they had was abnormal. Under 25s are not invited for their cervical screening because cervical cancer is very rare in under 25s and abnormal cell changes in younger women often go back to normal meaning you may have treatment you don’t need.
Why are cervical screening tests so important? Cervical screenings are one of the best ways to protect yourself from cervical cancer. The screening is not a test for cancer it’s to help prevent cancer, it checks the health of your cervix and helps find any abnormal changes before they can turn into cancer.
What is cervical cancer? Cervical cancer is when abnormal cells in the lining of the cervix grow in an uncontrolled way and eventually form a growth. If not caught early, cancer cells gradually grow into the surrounding tissues and may spread to other body areas. The cervix forms a canal that connects the top of the vagina to the lower part of the womb. This is called the endocervical canal. The cervix has 2 parts: the ectocervix – the outer surface of the cervix and the endocervix – the inside (the canal) of the cervix. A layer of skin-like cells covers the ectocervix on its outer surface. These cells are called squamous cells. Glandular cells that produce mucus cover the endocervix. The skin-like cells of the ectocervix can become cancerous, leading to squamous cell cervical cancer. This is the most common type of cervical cancer. The glandular cells of the endocervix can also become cancerous, leading to adenocarcinoma of the cervix. The transformation zone is where the area of glandular and squamous cells meets. Most cervical cancers start here.
What are the symptoms? The main symptoms of cervical cancer are, vaginal bleeding that’s unusual for you - including bleeding during or after sex, between your periods or after the menopause and having heavier periods than usual. Changes to your vaginal discharge, pain during sex and pain your lower back between your hip bones (pelvis) or in your lower tummy.
What are the causes of cervical cancer? Almost all cervical cancers are caused by an infection with certain high risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV). You can get HPV from: any skin-to-skin contact of the genital area, vaginal, anal or oral sex and sharing sex toys.
Who is more likely to get cervical cancer? Cervical cancer is most common in women ages between 30 and 35, but it can happen at any age and to anyone with a cervix. There are many factors that will make you more likely to get cervical cancer including, if you have a weakened immune system like HIV or AIDS. If you have given birth to multiple children or at an early age (under 17 years old.) If your mother took the hormonal medicine diethylstilbestrol (DES) while pregnant with you or if you smoke. You are also more likely to get cervical cancer if you have been taking the contraceptive pill for more than 5 years although this only slightly increases your risk. Finally, if you’ve had vaginal, vulval, kidney or bladder cancer in the past.
Statistics
68.7% of eligible individuals aged 25-64 adequately screened. (1.2% decrease on the previous year, when coverage was 69.9%)
4.62 million individuals aged 25-64 invited for screening. (9.7% decrease on the previous year, when 5.12 million were invited.)
3.43 million individuals aged 25-64 tested. (2% decrease on the previous year when 3.5 million were tested.)
Cervical screenings can prevent up to 75% of all cervical cancer from developing.
It’s estimated that the NHS cervical screening programme saves around 5,000 lives per year.
Over a quarter (26.7%) of women are too embarrassed to attend cervical screening.
Over two thirds (70%) don’t think cervical screenings reduce a women’s risk of cervical cancer.
72% of women feel uncomfortable about getting undressed in front of the doctor or nurse.
1 in 10 women have never attended a cervical screening after being invited by the NHS.
1 in 4 women worry that the procedure is going to be painful.
Around 3,200 women are diagnosed in the UK each year with cervical cancer.
9 out of 10 women who go for a cervical screening get the all clear.
1 in 3 women aged 25-29 skip their cervical screenings despite being the highest risk of developing cervical cancer.
Door 22
Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust: mind the gap
Door 22 is a creative agency that specialises in charity and healthcare design. They created a impactful campaign for Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to mark cervical screening awareness week. The campaign and poster was to be run on the London underground to raise awareness of the importance of regular cervical screening. Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust aim is to encourage women aged 25-49 to book a test as soon as they receive their invite and not to leave a gap. So for the campaign Door 22 used the iconic phrase often used on the underground and transport platforms – Mind the Gap. The phrase is used across the world to remind travellers to watch out for the gap between the platform and the train. For the campaign, they used the phrase in context, to remind women to watch out for leaving too big a gap in between their invitation and appointment for cervical screenings. The campaign ran for two weeks across the London Underground. I think the play on words used in this campaign is very successful and the bright pink really catches people’s attention.
Ann Summers
Remove the fear from the smear
Leading customer experience agency, RAPP UK has teamed up with sex toy and lingerie brand Ann Summers to create a campaign aimed at removing the stigma around cervical smear tests and highlighting the importance for women to attend their cervical screening appointment.
The ‘remove fear from the smear’ campaign aims to counter anxiety often associated with cervical screening by promoting what appears to be a compact new ‘life saving’ sex toy. But it is in fact a speculum, the instrument used during cervical smear tests.
The campaign teases a new product which will lead customers to believe they are launching a new sex toy, followed by a big reveal where the audience learns that the new ‘toy’ is in fact a speculum – The Life-Saving One. The integrated campaign, which launched on Monday 19th June 2023, the start of National Cervical Screening Week, is running online and on social, as well as the pink speculums appearing in-store alongside signage highlighting pertinent statistics around cervical screening. Ann Summers is a brand that encourages women to come together and openly talk about sexual pleasure and wellness. It’s here that women buy toys of all shapes and sizes, often bigger than the speculum used during cervical screenings. This awareness campaign aims to talk about cervical screening outside of a clinical, daunting environment and to remove some of the fear associated with it. Ann Summers recognises that there are many factors as to why someone might not want to go for a smear test and the size of the speculum is just one of these, but if everyone tested regularly 83% of deaths could be prevented each year. Women aged between 25-29 are the least likely to attend their cervical smear test and also Ann Summer’s core customer base, making this partnership incredibly powerful.
Initial sketches
Mailer box
Information leaflet received inside the mailer box
These are the initial sketches for my ‘Don’t fear your smear’ campaign, I want to create an information box that will be sent out to young women on the lead up to their 25th birthday to help educate them on the importance of attending a cervical screening.
The box will contain a leaflet with all the information young women need to know surrounding cervical cancer and cervical screenings. Such as; what cervical cancer is, the symptoms and what to expect at the appointment. I have chosen to use a play on words with screening and do it as a screening invitation like you would get for movie premieres. So the top of the box will read ‘you are invited t a screening’ with a ticket on the front, it will also include the ‘don’t fear your smear’ branding.